InstaDeep, a London-based startup that provides AI decision-making tools for enterprises, has raised $100m ($£74m) in a Series B funding round. The round was led by venture capital firm Alpha Intelligence Capital and private equity firm CDIB.
The company will use the extra capital to advance its computing infrastructure, which is designed for high-performance decision-making applications. The firm will also expand its global presence by increasing the size of its workforce and expanding its offerings to the US.
Other investors to back InstaDeep in the Series B round, which has now closed, include BioNTech, Chimera Abu Dhabi, Deutsche Bahn’s DB Digital Ventures, Google, G42 and Synergie.
InstaDeep’s technology is used across multiple industry verticals, including biotech, logistics and electronics manufacturing. The startup said it will use the capital to accelerate product launches in these areas.
“This funding round is a tremendous vote of confidence from our partners BioNTech, Google and Deutsche Bahn after working closely with us on innovative, high-impact AI initiatives,” said Karim Beguir, co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep. “We are very excited to get the support of Alpha Intelligence Capital, Chimera, Synergie and Group42 as we see wide-ranging opportunities to deploy our AI products to tackle complex real-world problems.”
While InstaDeep is headquartered in Lond, it was founded in North Africa by Beguir and co-founder Zohra Slim in 2014.
The company’s AI tools are based on GPU-accelerated computing. It currently offers two services: DeepChain and DeepPCB.
DeepChain offers AI-accelerated protein design wherein protein sequences can be explored with trained AI language models. This service can be used to discover new protein designs and validate them with molecular dynamic simulations. DeepPCB on the other hand is an AI-powered cloud-native PCB designing service that is claimed to design complex boards in less than 24 hours.
In 2020, InstaDeep announced the development of a new computational method, in association with BioNTech. The new method is claimed to analyse worldwide available sequencing data to predict high-risk SARS-CoV-2 variants. This is an early warning system of sorts, which is based on AI calculated immune escape and fitness metrics.
“InstaDeep is a deep technology company that disrupts traditional approaches in crucial areas as they do with BioNTech for drug discovery or with Deutsche Bahn for railway scheduling,” said Arnaud Barthelemy, partner and COO at Alpha Intelligence Capital. “We are thrilled to join this exciting adventure and eager to help support InstaDeep’s growth through our unique AI expertise.”
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